'Us' in the Bible

"It is necessary, therefore, that of the men who have been with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us--

beginning from His baptism by John down to the day on which He was taken up again from us into Heaven--one should be appointed to become a witness with us as to His resurrection."

How then does each of us hear his own native language spoken by them?

Some of us are Parthians, Medes, Elamites. Some are inhabitants of Mesopotamia, of Judaea or Cappadocia, of Pontus or the Asian Province, of Phrygia or Pamphylia,

"As to the patriarch David, I need hardly remind you, brethren, that he died and was buried, and that we still have his tomb among us.

This Jesus, God has raised to life-- a fact to which all of us testify.

Peter fixing his eyes on him, as John did also, said, "Look at us."

Peter, seeing this, spoke to the people. "Israelites," he said, "why do you wonder at this man? Or why gaze at us, as though by any power or piety of our own we had enabled him to walk?

But to prevent the matter spreading any further among the people, let us stop them by threats from speaking in the future in this name to any one whatever."

As for us, what we have seen and heard we cannot help speaking about."

"We strictly forbad you to teach in that name--did we not?" he said. "And see, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and are trying to make us responsible for that man's death!"

But, as for us, we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the delivery of the Message."

For we have heard him say that Jesus, the Nazarene, will pull this place down to the ground and will change the customs which Moses handed down to us."

"But the man who was doing the wrong resented his interference, and asked, "'Who appointed you magistrate and judge over us?

This is he who was among the Congregation in the Desert, together with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our forefathers, who received ever-living utterances to hand on to us.

They said to Aaron, "'Make gods for us, to march in front of us; for as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'

"Immediately, therefore, I sent to you, and I thank you heartily for having come. That is why all of us are now assembled here in God's presence, to listen to what the Lord has commanded you to say."

not to all the people, but to witnesses--men previously chosen by God--namely, to us, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.

And He has commanded us to preach to the people and solemnly declare that this is He who has been appointed by God to be the Judge of the living and the dead.

Then he described to us how he had seen the angel come and enter his house and say, "'Send to Jaffa and fetch Simon, surnamed Peter.

"And," said Peter, "no sooner had I begun to speak than the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He fell upon us at the first.

"If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we first believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, why, who was I to be able to thwart God?"

"Brethren, descendants of the family of Abraham, and all among you who fear God, to us has this Message of salvation been sent.

For such is the Lord's command to us. "'I have placed Thee,' He says of Christ, 'as a light to the Gentiles, in order that Thou mayest be a Saviour as far as the remotest parts of the earth.'"

So he sprang up and began to walk about. Then the crowds, seeing what Paul had done, rent the air with their shouts in the Lycaonian language, saying, "The gods have assumed human form and have come down to us."

And God, who knows all hearts, gave His testimony in their favour by bestowing the Holy Spirit on them just as He did on us;

and He made no difference between us and them, in that He cleansed their hearts by their faith.

Yet let us send them written instructions to abstain from things polluted by connexion with idolatry, from fornication, from meat killed by strangling, and from blood.

As we have been informed that certain persons who have gone out from among us have disturbed you by their teaching and have unsettled your minds, without having received any such instructions from us;

For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no burden heavier than these necessary requirements--

Here, one night, Paul saw a vision. There was a Macedonian who was standing, entreating him and saying, "Come over into Macedonia and help us."

So when he had seen the vision, we immediately looked out for an opportunity of passing on into Macedonia, confidently inferring that God had called us to proclaim the Good News to the people there.

When she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If in your judgement I am a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house." And she made us go there.

One day, as we were on our way to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us who claimed to be inspired and was accustomed to bring her owners large profits by telling fortunes.

She kept following close behind Paul and the rest of us, crying aloud, "These men are the bondservants of the Most High God, and are proclaiming to you the way of salvation."

But Paul said to them, "After cruelly beating us in public, without trial, Roman citizens though we are, they have thrown us into prison, and are they now going to send us away privately? No, indeed! Let them come in person and fetch us out."

For the things you are saying sound strange to us. We should therefore like to be told exactly what they mean."

that they might seek God, if perhaps they could grope for Him and find Him. Yes, though He is not far from any one of us.

These brethren had gone on and were waiting for us in the Troad.

The rest of us had already gone on board a ship, and now we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul on board there; for so he had arranged, he himself intending to go by land.

Accordingly, when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mitylene.

When, however, our time was up, we left and went on our way, all the disciples and their wives and children coming to see us off. Then, after kneeling down on the beach and praying,

As for us, our voyage was over when having sailed from Tyre we reached Ptolemais. here we inquired after the welfare of the brethren, and remained a day with them.

At length we reached Jerusalem, and there the brethren gave us a hearty welcome.

But--not to detain you too long--I beg you in your forbearance to listen to a brief statement from us.

Then Festus said, "King Agrippa and all who are present with us, you see here the man about whom the whole nation of the Jews made suit to me, both in Jerusalem and here, crying out that he ought not to live any longer.

Putting to sea again, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us;

There Julius found an Alexandrian ship bound for Italy, and put us on board of her.

It took several days of slow sailing for us to come with difficulty off Cnidus; from which point, as the wind did not allow us to get on in the direct course, we ran under the lee of Crete by Salmone.

But it was not long before a furious north-east wind, coming down from the mountains, burst upon us and carried the ship out of her course.

Then, when for several days neither sun nor stars were seen and the terrific gale still harassed us, the last ray of hope was now vanishing.

There were 276 of us, crew and passengers, all told.

The strange-speaking natives showed us remarkable kindness, for they lighted a fire and made us all welcome because of the pelting rain and the cold.

Now in the same part of the island there were estates belonging to the Governor, whose name was Publius. He welcomed us to his house, and for three days generously made us his guests.

They also loaded us with honours, and when at last we sailed they put supplies on board for us.

From there we came round and reached Rhegium; and a day later, a south wind sprang up which brought us by the evening of the next day to Puteoli.

Here we found brethren, who invited us to remain with them for a week; and so we reached Rome.

Meanwhile the brethren there, hearing of our movements, came as far as the Market of Appius and the Three Huts to meet us; and when Paul saw them he thanked God and felt encouraged.